At least 300 funded between 2009 and 2011 when congressional ban was lifted. Americans United for Life counsel: 'Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for something that is morally wrong.'

WASHINGTON (EWTN News) — Local government funding of 300 abortions in the District of Columbia made taxpayers complicit in a moral wrong that ended lives, pro-life critics said.

When a congressional ban on abortion funding was lifted from 2009 to 2011, the District of Columbia paid for at least 300 abortions at a cost of $185,000 using local taxpayers’ money, The Associated Press reports.

In 2009, President Barack Obama’s administration put forward an altered version of the ban which declared that its prohibition on funding applied only to federal tax money, not funds raised locally. It also expanded the health exemptions under which abortion could be funded.

Mary Harned, staff counsel with Americans United for Life, described the report as “clearly tragic.”

“More women have abortions when covered by public programs,” she said, citing a study by the Allan Guttmacher Institute.

Funding abortions ensures that women will have more abortions “without reflecting on it” because when they realize they are pregnant they can be “rash,” she told EWTN News on July 8.

“Having more time to think it over is actually a good thing,” Harned continued. “It’s not really good public policy to make it easier for them to have abortions very quickly.”

“And, of course, it ends a life,” she added. “Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for something that is morally wrong.”

Ciara Matthews, communications director with the Susan B. Anthony List, said her organization was “appalled” by the report.

“Overwhelmingly, Americans are opposed to having their taxpayer dollars go to fund abortions.”

If efforts to defund Planned Parenthood are not successful, she told EWTN News, “we run the risk of this happening all over.”

Abortion supporters defended the funding.

DC Abortion Fund’s president, Tiffany Reed, told the AP that being able to use a Medicaid card made getting an abortion easier for a poor woman than at any other time.

Laura Meyers, chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., said it gave the woman dignity, instead of having to collect money themselves.

Myers said the delay in getting funds could mean a woman seeking an abortion will have to get an abortion later, which she said increased health risks.

Matthews criticized these claims.

“The idea that somehow women can only be dignified by having their abortions covered by taxpayer dollars is the furthest thing from a pro-woman stance I can think of.

“As a pro-woman org, the Susan B. Anthony List is dismayed and bewildered at such an outrageous statement.”

Harned explained that an annual rider attached to the funding-appropriations bill, known as the Dornan Amendment, is required to ban the funding.

However, this ban is temporary. Congress could make the funding ban permanent by changing its place in an authorization bill or by passing a comprehensive bill prohibiting taxpayer funding for
abortion, like the proposed No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.

Electing pro-life politicians in the overwhelmingly Democratic District of Columbia is “definitely challenging,” Harned acknowledged.

“Funding comes from the U.S. Congress, so as long as there is a pro-life Congress, and the president wants to sign it, then the ban can stay in place.”

Oops, The Bible verse should have been 2 Chronicles 7:14, not Isaiah 55:11. The point was that judgement starts with the Church. If God’s people will lead the way by stopping their own sin, humble themselves, and pray, then God will heal our land. We can’t expect the world to know right from wrong but we have no excuse. God has told us what is right and what is wrong.

Posted by veritas on Wednesday, Jul 13, 2011 10:39 PM (EDT):

In response to DRF’s comment that “The idea that women don’t sufficiently “reflect” on their own medical decisions unless forced to by the government is insulting and (sic) infantalizing. The real effect of these delays is to make abortion more expensive and harder to get.” etc.

No DRF; what really is insulting and infantile is that a relative handful of elites in the judiciary supported by a relative handful of elites in the media and funded by a relative handful of elites using tax exempt foundations funds have been allowed to trash the Constitution and MANDATE abortion in ALL States with Roe vs. Wade. Abortion had always been a State issue and had been legalized in NY and Oregon but the elites saw that abortion was not and never would have been the law of the “Land” but worse yet could and would be challenged in State Legislatures who never could or would be forced to subsidize it with State tax dollars the way that it could and has been by Federal dollars.

No DRF what is insulting is that Planned Parenthood is the single largest recipient of Title X tax $$$ and this “Lands” single largest killer of babies and that this Congress is going to borrow money from China to pay for these killings and shoving the tab onto me and my children and grandchildren.

What is even more insulting is that dozens of Catholic Universities have been mesmerized by the secular, pagan, post modern “Kulture” to the point that they become “part of the Borg” and now cooperate with Planned Parenthood instead of training those who are entrusted to them for a Catholic education how to spot the insidious ways that that this has been done by “Kulture” Catholics who are manipulating and using traditional institutions.

The hypocrisy of congressional “pro-choice” knows no bounds. They get all huffy about torture, pretending to be against it in any form…but they see no problem with partial birth abortion. They demand to show videos of waterboarding to all Americans on TV claiming we have a right to know. Why aren’t they demanding videos of partial birth abortions so we can see clearly what barbaric torture really is? Molech worship in the Old Testament was sacrificing children to the false god Molech. Abortion is Molech worship, the idea that if I sacrifice this baby, somehow life will be better for me, my family, my city, etc. The world doesn’t know any better. Isaiah 55:11

Posted by Brandy Miller on Wednesday, Jul 13, 2011 11:25 AM (EDT):

@DRF: There already exists a 100% effective form of birth control. It’s called abstinence. Women who do not wish to face unplanned pregnancies are able to abtain this miracle birth control at no charge to anyone, all it requires is some self-control. It’s insulting and infantalizing to assume that women don’t sufficiently “reflect” on their sexual choices and therefore must be provided abortion and birth control as solutions to the inevitable consequences of their actions.

Posted by Joe Heschmeyer on Tuesday, Jul 12, 2011 4:25 PM (EDT):

DRF,

The thing is, these waiting periods actually work. Significantly fewer women have abortions when there’s even a basic waiting period requirement. The pro-choice Guttmacher Institute admitted that Mississippi’s waiting period requirement led to an 11-13 % net drop in abortions, even after accounting for the women who traveled to Tennessee and Alabama (http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/MandatoryCounseling.pdf).

As for your own claim, I think it’s silly. Are we really to believe that somewhere, there’s a woman who decided that she’d rather go through nine months of pregnancy than take two days off of work? Nearly every abortion clinic is open on weekends, and most states with waiting periods border states without. The fact is, while some women decide to have an abortion after extensive deliberation, that’s hardly the case for all women (as the stats make transparently obvious).

“In England, death by asphyxiation from breathing oven fumes had accounted for roughly half of all suicides up until the 1970s, when Britain began converting ovens from coal gas, which contains lots of carbon monoxide, to natural gas, which has almost none. During that time, suicides plummeted roughly 30 percent — and the numbers haven’t changed since.”

So yes, there ARE people out there who make life-or-death decisions impulsively, and who (if given time to calm down and deliberate on the subject) would choose more wisely. No one is suggesting that description applies to ALL women, but the statistics show it applies to some people (both men and women) in the realms of both abortion and suicide. That’s not insulting or infantalizing. It’s just an intellectually serious acknowledgment of what the cold data shows.

God bless,

Joe.

Posted by DRF on Tuesday, Jul 12, 2011 1:39 PM (EDT):

The idea that women don’t sufficiently “reflect” on their own medical decisions unless forced to by the government is insulting and infantalizing.

The real effect of these delays is to make abortion more expensive and harder to get. Consider that most women don’t live in counties that have their own abortion providers. A waiting period forces a woman to take two or more extra days off of work. It’s underhanded.

Abortion isn’t pleasant, but until we come up with a 100% perfect, practical form of birth control or a workable artificial uterus, we’re going to have to deal with it at least some of the time.

Posted by veritas on Tuesday, Jul 12, 2011 1:53 AM (EDT):

These 300 dead are really only a tiny part of the “body count”. The Democrat controlled Congress under the leadership of Speaker of the House and “Catholic” Nancy Pelosi also did away with the “Mexico City Policy” and as frosting on this Christmas cake to Planned Parenthood - without a single Republican vote - Pelosi & Company “empowered” the D.C. funding that paid for killing these 300 little ones. How many Mexican and South American and African and Philippine babies also died only God and Planned Parenthood knows for sure. This same bill also smothered D.C.‘s nascent federally-funded school-vouchers program; D.C. politicians can and do send their kids to private schools so God forbid the black underclass of D.C. should have a fraction of the same chance at a decent education that would violate the new Democrat Social Justice Norms. Please pray for all politicians but especially for the Catholic ones.

Join the Discussion

We encourage a lively and honest discussion of our content. We ask that charity guide your words.
By submitting this form, you are agreeing to our discussion guidelines.
Comments are published at our discretion. We won’t publish comments that lack charity, are off topic, or are more than 400 words.
Thank you for keeping this forum thoughtful and respectful.